News

The EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted an opinion on 07/09/2020 calling on the Commission to remove titanium dioxide from the EU list of authorized food additives. According to French MEP Eric Andrieu (S&D), titanium dioxide, used as a bleaching agent in, for example, chewing gum or ice cream, is a dangerous substance and its further use should therefore be banned. According to the Committee, this year's Commission proposal to limit the use of titanium dioxide is not enough, and the Committee also called on the Commission to withdraw the proposal and ban the substance altogether. The opinion was adopted by 51 votes to 11, with 16 abstentions. Titanium dioxide is currently being assessed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and the opinion should be finalized during 2021. If necessary, the Commission should then consider tightening up the rules.
More information is available here and here.

The six largest European organizations of the agricultural and meat industry, including Copa and Cogeca, wrote an open letter on 09/09/2020 concerning the names traditionally used for meat products. Organizations require that "steak" or "burger" names be used exclusively to describe meat products, not their plant-based alternatives. Organizations consider the same labelling of plant-based and meat products to be misleading for consumers. The issue is now being addressed in the European Parliament, which in 2019 approved an opinion rejecting the same names. However, the new Parliament is reassessing the situation, threatening to change Parliament's original position, i.e. that the designation "sausage" or "burger" could also be used for plant-based products.
The letter can be downloaded here.

On 10/09/2020, German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner confirmed a new outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in a wild boar in eastern Brandenburg near the Polish border. At the same time, it informed about the activation of the crisis management plan and the introduction of strict measures to prevent the spread of ASF, including restrictions on the movement of people and vehicles in the affected area, a ban on hunting or agricultural activities and a thorough search for cadavers. There is also a fencing on the affected area and a ban on entering the area. According to Josef Schmidhuber, Deputy Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the ASF finding will not have a significant impact on German pork exports, also because animal health standards in Germany are relatively high.
More information is available here.

France has confirmed its interest, despite its own plan to strengthen the sustainability of agriculture and to offer farmers switching to organic farming various forms of tax incentives, to allow farmers to apply for an exemption from the ban on the use of neonicotinoids. France proposes to allow exemptions until July 2023 (initially until September 2020). France shall use a clause authorizing the granting of exemptions to grant exemptions, provided that the risks cannot be addressed in any other meaningful way. Due to significant problems in the sugar beet growing sector, France will therefore allow exemptions, but the exemptions will also be available for the cultivation of other crops. The Committee on Agriculture will discuss the proposal on 23/09/2020 and 05/10/2020. France continues to work to reduce the use of glyphosate, with consumption expected to fall by more than 50% by 2021.
German MEP Martin Häusling (Greens) has not agreed to the French government's decision to present a bill allowing an exemption from the ban on the use of neonicotinoids. He sent a letter to European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans calling for a stricter approach to granting exemptions, as the ban on the use of neonicotinoids was decided at EU level and must therefore be strictly enforced if environmental policy is to remain credible.
More information is available here and here.

According to representatives of some agricultural organizations, the EU's targets for reducing pesticide use by 50% may speed up the arrival of invasive insect species. As many as 1,800 non-native insects are already present in Europe and are considered invasive, which has an impact on human health and biodiversity. In addition, dealing with damages costs around €20 billion a year. The growing number of invasive species may also lead to the introduction of their natural predators.